after Maria
by cedricsowner
Summary: This was inspired by the conversation between Winston and Guerrero during "Salvage and Reclamation" about Chance's relationship with Maria and Junior snapping at people after his return from Latin America.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.**

_"A week? Is that what he told you? A week? _I_ left after a week, dude. He stuck around for like four months. And when he finally did get home you couldn't say a word to him without him snapping at you."_

_"I've never known him to snap at anybody."_

But he did. Oh boy, he did.

Baptiste suggested a bit of clubbing to get Junior's mind off things and Guerrero for once agreed with him. As always with Junior, it didn't take long till a beautiful woman approached him.

"So alone? Would you care for some company?"

"No, I'm sitting here contemplating to join a monastery."

Pretty huffed, she stomped off.

"Maybe we should visit a brothel", Baptiste told Guerrero.

Going on jobs with Junior wasn't exactly a picnic either.

"Are we going to shoot the target?", Guerrero asked.

"No, I thought we're going to talk him into suicide this time."

Even the Old Man wasn't spared.

"So do you think we should take that client?"

"No, I think we should refer him to Dr. Phil so he can work on his anger management issues."

After weeks going by without any indication that things were on the upswing, Guerrero finally decided to take some drastic - by his standards, REALLY drastic - steps. A couple of years ago he had, more by accident than design, stumbled upon a psychologist with some very interesting extra-marital activities on his conscience. In exchange for a small monthly fee Guerrero made sure they stayed on his conscience and didn't show up anywhere else.

Morality-wise, the doctor was a lowlife. But his professional record was impressive. Guerrero decided to pay him a visit.

"Apparently the relationship that developed between your friend and that woman became deeper than he had initially intended", the psychiatrist said.

Guerrero nodded in agreement. Originally Junior had planned to stick around for another week at the most – unlike most women, Maria had let him dangle and he had wanted to get into her pants before going home. A matter of pride thing. But then his behavior had gradually changed, his excuses to stay had become vaguer and vaguer…

"He seems like a textbook case of an emotionally guarded person to me", the doctor continued. "Relationships of depth require vulnerability. An emotionally guarded person such as your friend raises, metaphorically speaking, his armor to protect himself against exposing his vulnerabilities."

Guerrero frowned. The doctor was talking about Junior trying to protect himself from getting emotionally hurt. That couldn't be it – Junior had always been "emotionally guarded", long before he had met Maria. They all were. There was no way to make it in this line of work if you weren't.

_Vulnerability… _

A vague idea formed in the back of Guerrero's mind.

The doctor droned on about intimacy, fear of humiliation and misperceived risks connected with exposure of feelings, but Guerrero wasn't listening anymore. One by one the pieces came together: Maria had managed to get through Junior's emotional armor. He had started caring for her and he had left her because he feared losing her due to the violence that involuntarily followed him everywhere.

In other words: By leaving, Junior had been trying to protect _Maria_ from getting _literally_ hurt. Because he… what? _Loved _her?

_Dude…_

No wonder he was snapping at everybody.

Guerrero knew that problem only too well.

_Osaka… _

"Any suggestions?", he asked the doctor.

"You should talk to him. Sit down with him and let him now you understand the motivation for his behavior."

For a tiny second Guerrero imagined sitting down with Junior, of all people, to _talk. _

About his _feelings._

On the day that happened the only thing keeping the flying pigs grounded would be the blizzard conditions in hell.

When Guerrero came back to the Old Man's HQ that evening he found Junior in the bathroom, getting patched up by Joubert himself.

"Idiot used explosives to cause a wall to tumble down and crush the target to death", the Old Man told Guerrero. "He jumped through an open window _in the tumbling wall_ to escape."

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" For the first time in a month Junior showed his trademark million dollar smile again.

The Old Man rolled his eyes and put more iodine on the deep scratch on his shoulder while Guerrero just looked at his friend, very thoughtfully.

_So your remedy is adrenaline, dude? _

Not a never heard of coping mechanism, but Junior had a tendency to push things to the limits and for a tiny moment Guerrero wondered what would happen if he ever got attached to someone and failed to protect her.

The thought made him, _Guerrero_, shudder, if only very briefly.

Then he shoved the thought away. After Maria, Junior would keep his guard up even more. It would take someone very special to get through his armor again.

Highly unlikely Junior would meet someone like that in his line of work.


End file.
